If there is anything that the world needs now, more than ever, it is leadership. In particular, BETTER leadership. The Leadership Accelerator, Eddie Turner, is just the right person who can tell us all about it. He joins Michael Silvers in today’s show to talk about the importance of leadership, how to become better leaders and continuous learners, and why we need to manage our priorities. Giving inspiration and motivation, Eddie then shares advice to those who don’t believe they can be a leader—from overcoming the imposter syndrome to learning how to become the best follower first. In this conversation, join the host of the Keep Leading!® podcast and international bestselling book, 140 Simple Messages to Guide Emerging Leaders, where Eddie breaks down his routine that gets him in the right mindset to become a great leader and how you, too, can do the same.
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How To Become Better Leaders And Continuous Learners With Eddie Turner
I’m so glad you’re here. I know your time is as important as our time and it’s taking that mentoring to the next level. If you want to be part of The Mentor Studio as a member, if you guys have known, we slowed that down. We closed the doors for a couple of months because we have partnered with a lot of other organizations that are bringing their members towards us, but we’re opening those doors back up. If you want to be part of The Mentor Studio, go to TheMentorStudio.com. You can sign up. It’s $495 a year and you’ll be mentored by some of the greatest on the planet. You who know who it is, we’ve talked a lot of those, you’re reading the blog. We only bring the best of the best on here.
I was so honored as one of my mentors got a wonderful award at the Global Gurus. The Global Gurus is an amazing organization and Bill Walsh was on there. We helped host it. There was this gentleman on there, named Mr. Eddie Turner. He was professional. He was there, but what attracted me from another perspective? He was there to help. He helped members if there was a question. He always got on early.
He stayed to the last and was there to truly make a difference and be impactful. For the show, we’re always looking for mentors who will make a difference in other people’s lives and not make it about them. Without any further ado, and he’s going to tell you a little bit about himself, too. You know how we do at the show. We let them earn the rights. Let’s give it up for Mr. Eddie Turner. Eddie, how are you doing?
Michael, thank you for having me. What a pleasure to be here with you. Yes, it was a delight to meet you and Bill Walsh. Is he a ball of energy or what? You and your team performed admirably at The Global Gurus 2021 Summit. You all are the reason the summit was a big success. It was all the hard work you all put in behind the scenes. I’m very grateful to you and grateful to be here.
It’s great to have you. It’s funny, too, is because you give that us a service piece and Bill wanted me there so I jumped on it. I helped the board and everything. Who was it before we all got off? It was either Mark or Marshall said, “You’re coming to our meeting next year.” I said, “I’d love to be there. I’ll be there” Eddie, tell us a little bit about your background and why you’re here.
I’m Eddie Turner and I am The Leadership Accelerator. I work with leaders to accelerate performance and drive impact. I do that in three primary ways, executive coaching, masterful facilitation, and professional speaking. I’m also the host of the Keep Leading!® Podcast. I am an author of an international bestselling book, 140 Simple Messages To Guide Emerging Leaders.
As we're looking at what's unfolding in the world around us, it screams the need for leadership. Click To TweetThe thing that people always ask and we don’t ever want to forget this. If somebody wanted to reach out to you or find you because people, obviously they look at Instagram. Those are two big, unless you make it easy. What’s the easiest way for somebody to reach out to you? If they want to find out more about what you’re doing, or if it’s even a fit with something they’re looking to do.
The easiest way to contact me is to visit, AskEddieTurner.com. It will give you links to all my social media and you can connect with me. I welcome that. Follow me on my social media, details about the services I offer, links to my books, and any of the features of me being in the news, videos, blogs, my Forbes columns, all of those things are available.
We’ve had things asked and we always make it happen. The biggest thing about what’s going on now because a lot of the shows have been in the pandemic, everybody’s still learning and educating and getting that next piece of their business in line or the mindset or how to manifest and how to be different. I’m going to jump into the meat in the beginning. From you, this is going to be impactful, I can tell right away. What are three things that the audience could take away from this interview? Give them three things that they can walk away and start using the minute they read to this to help move their lives, Eddie.
That’s a broad thing to ask there, Michael. Three things off the top of my head. My mind is always about leadership. As we’re looking at what’s unfolding in the world around us, it screams the need for leadership. How can everyone reading do their part to take a little ownership for whatever area they can control and be a better leader? Is it in the home, community, their place of worship, or their place of employment? Wherever it is, could each of us do our part to be a better leader? That means it’s not about whether we have a formal title in an organization at our place of work or any of these other areas. Being a leader means we see something that needs to be done and we address it. We do the right thing without waiting to be asked and told.
In some cases, in spite of what’s popular or not. I’d say personal leadership, self-leadership, then where can we help lead others? That would be the first thing. The second thing I’d say is the importance of being a continuous learner. I have a personal mission statement. I take a certain percentage of my income every year and allocate it towards some type of educational endeavor. Yes, there’ll be that great family vacation, but I’m probably going to spend more on education for the year that I do that vacation in some cases. I believe that to be a better leader, I must be a better learner. I must continuously learn and put new content into myself. I can’t continue to survive off of what I learned 5, 10, 20 years ago. The world is moving. We’re in the knowledge economy. It’s moving at a blistering pace.
To be personally equipped for being an effective 21st-century leader at any level, knowledge is required. What can you do to take advantage of the programs available on LinkedIn, the local university, or any workshop? Even sometimes in the local high school, the local library. What can you do to take in new formal knowledge, new formal learning? The reason this matters is because as data changes, we need to be able to understand the data to be able to take appropriate action. Otherwise, we ignore it because it doesn’t align with what we learned years ago.
Our competitors, if we’re in a place of employment, they’re learning, growing, and will disintermediate us and we don’t do the same. Be it in terms of the nation. Other nations are doing the same at every layer that we’re talking about. I believe that’s one of the most important things. Finally, but not least, reevaluate our priorities and what it means, what’s important to us. If nothing else has taught us to do that, this time during this global pandemic has done it in a way that perhaps nothing could have. We’ve lost loved ones. We’ve seen loved ones go through agony and pain. Some have recovered. We’ve seen our jobs change. The meaning of work has changed. What the future of work looks like has changed.
Many of us got more time with family members than we ever would have had before. Now, in some cases, we may have had more time with them than we would have cared for, so my friends say. In other cases, we felt like we got precious moments we would not have had. We had time to learn our spouses, learn our children, and become a reunited family unit. Can we continue to re-establish priorities around what matters? Family, relationships outside of the family. On my walk with one of my neighbors, we talked about how he’s a little older than me. He and his wife have been married several years, to give you an indication. He and his friends have all been connected since fourth grade. He was telling me about all the great careers they’ve all had.
They’re all retired now but because of the pandemic, they started having these Sunday Zooms. He was telling him about the Sunday Zoom meetings they’ve had that have made them more closer than ever. Even though they’ve always been closed since fourth grade, they never met weekly as they did because of Zoom. Perhaps those would be three areas I’d say people should consider thinking about.
That’s strong, then you jumped right in. That was well done because I never prepped my guests. It is that leadership part. The one thing when you talked about leadership too, and I believe, is investing in yourself. The biggest thing Bob Proctor taught me, I said, “What are the two things to be successful?” He said, “I want you to read every book and buy every course.” Literally investing in yourself and that education will take you further. Also, you’re going to find the people around you who are doing the same thing. We’re always lifelong learners but putting it to action. That’s a big difference. We know enough people, lifelong learners and never put it to action.
Application is the key.
There you go. The question that comes up is though the leadership is a critical piece, that leadership part. Many people, we hear this from beginning entrepreneurs, even people who have businesses, “I’m not a leader yet. I don’t know enough to be a leader. Can you address that question a little bit? I can’t be a leader.” We hear that all the time.
To be personally equipped for being an effective 21st-century leader at any level, knowledge is required. Click To TweetI hear it all the time in the work that I am involved in. Interestingly, I coach people as young as eighteen years old at several college campuses where I’m an executive coach. I coach senior leaders, executives. I’m expecting to hear statements like that from my young people who don’t feel like they’re old enough, smart enough, and accomplished enough to be a formal leader. You’d be surprised how often I hear they’re from some senior leaders. Not trusting in their ability. In fact, the imposter syndrome kicks in. Even though they are very educated and well accomplished, they may not still see themselves as a leader or able to maybe lead at a new level when given the opportunity.
Many people suffer from that imposter syndrome or the insecurity or lack of confidence when it comes to accepting formal leadership in an organization. Increasingly, people are starting to understand what’s perhaps even more important than formal leadership is informal leadership. Informal leadership means that you may not have that senior title, but you are able to still leave the power of influence in an organization and have more power than even the person with the formal title. Quite frankly, when people with formal titles start to understand the power of influence, they point to their titles a lot less.
It’s even that power within that power inside all of us. We meet people who are younger. You can feel the confidence. We call them in our report leaders. They’re the ones who seem to attract people and they don’t have to say, “By the way, I did this.” They don’t even ever go there. It’s having that natural piece. The importance about leadership is not everybody can be a leader because there are great followers. This has always become a negative word out there, but are you great at what you do?
Let’s say there’s an idea set and I’m the one though who will take that idea and take it out. I’m the one who will follow through because sometimes those of us who do some of the thought-leading have a tendency of, “Here’s a great idea. Here’s what it is,” but I need the team that’s smarter around me to make it happen because I’ll be off to the next idea. You keep jumping. It’s important to know that we all have leadership potential, but sometimes being a great leader is to be the best follower. That doesn’t mean that you go on. Eddie, talk about that.
Sometimes, to be a great leader, we must be a great follower. We need to look no further than someone as the great John Lewis, who has just died. He was seen as a leader in his day. He started off by being a follower of Dr. King. I’d also say the work of Dr. Ronald Heifetz at the Harvard Kennedy School is a landmark work in this space, helping people to understand the real difference between leadership and authority. When you start to break down the true meaning of that and those words, he helps people to understand leadership in a whole new context. Building the capacity to be a leader, no matter who you are. In fact, Jim Kouzes and his co-author, Barry Posner, of one of the books, I call it the leadership Bibles, The Leadership Challenge, it’s in its sixth edition.
They’ve been writing and studying researching leadership for several years. That book is one of the great books that many people point to when they study leadership and scholarly research. One of the things they say in that book is that they’ve never met a leader who was not capable of leading in that they say less than 1% of 1 million has zero leadership capacity at all. That means most people do have the ability to lead at some level.
Thank you for that. There’s no question. It’s that part of being a leader. I’m going to move away from that for a moment. We always say to students and new entrepreneurs we work with, “It’s not about you feeling bad that you don’t have something. Look for the skills that you do have.” Don’t come with the problem, come with the solution. We shift that mindset all the time but the thing that our participants are always asked to do, there’s the morning routine and a lot of thought leaders.
First of all, you invest in yourself. We have a lot of thought leaders invest in themselves. You have, obviously, the leadership potential and the rapport for that, which is very common. They want to also know, and this question comes up all the time when we do mentor calls, “What do you do in the morning?” Not only gets you up, but do you have a routine in the morning that puts you into the right mindset? What is that for you?
Having a morning routine is fundamental to being a great leader. When we listened to Bill Gates, Condoleezza Rice, any of the great leaders, they will all tell you what they do. For many people, it starts with simply getting up early. For some people, that’s 4:00 AM, and for others is 5:00 AM. I vacillate between the two, then having a set routine. Be it a spiritual routine that I run through of prayer or Bible reading, meditation, exercise. I’d ignored physical exercise for a while, so much so that I put it on 50 pounds during the pandemic. I had already been 50 pounds overweight. I got serious and tough with myself.
I can say that I have formally dropped all of my pandemic pounds. That started by making sure that my first appointment every morning was with myself, that I had to treat myself as my most important client. I don’t minimize the importance of exercise. It’s not something that can wait and I can do it later. There were some significant physical ailments I’ve started to have as a result. It’s not about, “I don’t care about what I look like anymore. I’m not a young guy out here.” No, it was impacting how maybe to show up as a leader and how I’m showing up for my clients. Simple things about my energy level, my ability to breathe freely.
Exercise is important to me now as a part of that. Some type of learning and through my three areas of vocation. I’m reading something about professional speaking, something about facilitation, coaching, and certainly keeping up with the day’s events. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, they play very prominently into my morning routine.
Some people say, “Don’t you make a lot of money? Don’t you become an entrepreneur, so you don’t have to have routines?” If you love what you do, there’s that tendency. I tell people all the time the reason that I do the things that I do is because I love what I do. Sometimes you need to build in some of the routines because being an entrepreneur, working from home, it’s been years. There are lots of days where, “I don’t want to do anything,” but building that routine, I realized, “I love what I do. I never want this to stop.” I have five grandchildren. I look at them and it’s even, “What do I want to be for them? Do I want to be the grandpa who can’t even pick the ball off the floor? Do I want to be the one who’s in there playing with them and be there for them?” It’s a mindset. It’s not just business. It’s everything in your life.
What’s perhaps even more important than formal leadership is informal leadership. Click To TweetThat’s part of what happened with me. I ended up having my first child. I didn’t think I’d have children, especially the age I’m at. I have a daughter now. That was the other motivation for me.
Now I understand some of the sleep stuff, but we’ll talk about that on our next show, sleeping and new babies, but it is because you want to be the dad. You want to be there for them and be the one who’s playing and whatever that is, however it looks. Congratulations from myself, Mary Glorfield, The Mentor Studio, and Bill Walsh. Before we wrap up, I always like to leave the audience with something. Now that you have a child, this is even better, but if we were to remember you 50 years from now, what would you want us to remember? What have you created and done or something about yourself?
That has changed and it’s the birth of my daughter. I told my wife that I had been concerned about producing content and leaving a legacy down the line, what would my tombstone say? I wanted it to be all the people that I’ve helped, something that I’ve done for them. Now it is about what my daughter will be able to look back and show my grandchildren if I’m not here. My mom never knew her dad. He, unfortunately, died when she was three years old, but my daughter shows something happened.
She has hours of footage that she’ll be able to watch. See what I was like, hear my voice, and read my thoughts, read my content, what I believed and what I stood for. Hopefully, be able to hear from other people talking about the things that I’ve done. Leaving a legacy of what I believe is morally upright in sound and what it means to be a leader is important for me for her to see. I hope that the world she grows up in will be very different from the one that her ancestors grew up in and that she will be able to do things that women can have only dreamed of.
For myself, The Mentor Studio, Power Team, all our partners, I want to thank you so much for being on. What a great legacy that you’ll leave. She will be proud of you. She will look at her dad. You will be a big part of her life and it’s a blessing. That’s all there is to it. To reach out to Eddie, you go to AskEddieTurner.com. He’s there for you. The information is on his site and read the blog over again. He talked about leadership.
You need to hear because there are little pieces within that piece that he talked about that are very impactful. Know that all of you that are starting in business, been in business, been in business a long time, you’re always reinventing yourself. You’re always changing, growing, and learning. Always continue to learn, get that morning routine, let’s make a difference, and be of service to as many people as you can. Eddie, I wanted to thank you so much for being on the show.
Sometimes, to be a great leader, we must be a great follower. Click To TweetMichael, thank you again for having me. What a pleasure to be here with you.
For myself and The Mentor Studio, we thank you all again. To see the Mentor Studio, go to TheMentorStudio.com. For those of you in the community, we are moving a lot of you into our new community. You’ll be ready to see that coming soon. We’ll have more shows coming up like we always did for those of you that got off listening to Keith Cunningham. Yes, that was the Keith Cunningham. You know exactly who he was. That was pretty amazing. Especially those of you who came through business mastery. Again, I wanted to thank you all, whether it’s your morning, afternoon, or evening. Eddie, you have a great day. I’ll talk to you all soon. Bye, everyone.
Important links
- Global Gurus
- Eddie Turner
- Keep Leading!® Podcast
- 140 Simple Messages To Guide Emerging Leaders
- The Leadership Challenge
About Eddie Turner
Eddie Turner is an in-demand expert in leadership development. Forbes called Eddie the preeminent authority on emerging leaders. He works as an executive coach for senior and emerging leaders. Eddie delivers keynote speeches and facilitates learning delivery and executive strategy sessions.
Eddie is a Certified Speaking Professional™ (CSP®) and ranked #6 on the “Top 30” list of Motivational Speakers by Global Gurus. He is also a certified trainer and master facilitator.
Eddie has appeared in national print, radio, and television media such as the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Fox News, and ABC. He has also worked as a national media commentator.
Eddie Turner is one of Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches, an International Certified Coach, an Affiliate Coach with the Institute of Coaching (McLean/Harvard Medical School), a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) coach with the International Coach Federation, and an official ICF Mentor Coach. Of the more than 37,000 ICF members in 143 countries, Eddie Turner was selected as a 2020 ICF Coach of the Week.
Eddie is the author of an international best-selling book, a C-Suite advisor, and C-Suite Radio host of the Keep Leading!® podcast, which earned Apple Podcasts coveted New & Noteworthy designation.
Eddie Turner is one of 60 contributing subject matter experts to the Talent Development Body of Knowledge—The Definitive Resource for the Talent Development Profession by the Association for Talent Development.
Eddie has extensive experience working with all levels of leaders in Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, international conglomerates, universities, public, private, and non-profit organizations as a technology and leadership consultant. Contact Eddie Turner to work with your senior or emerging leaders to “Accelerate Performance and Drive Impact!”®
#6 Ranked Motivational Speaker in the World—Global Gurus | Preeminent Authority on Emerging Leaders—Forbes | Executive Coach | International Best-Selling Author | C-Suite Radio Host: Keep Leading!® Podcast | Master Facilitator | #MG100 | #ICFCoachoftheWeek
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